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UNITED STATES PATENT BENJN. F. OOSTON, OF WASHINGTONfDISTRIO'l OFCOLUMBIA.

APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE GAS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, B'. F. CosToN, of thecity of Washington and District of Columbia, have invented a new anduseful apparatus for the generationof gas from rosin and other suitablesubstances for the purposes of illumination and regulating the supplywhile burning, and that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the principle or character which distinguishesit from allother things before known and of the manner of making, constructing andusing the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, makingpart of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinalvertical section of the apparatus; Fig. 2 a horizontal section taken atthe line 00 w of Fig. l, and Fig.

this surface frombeing gummed overr The retorts for the. generation ofgas from various substances, as now and heretofore-used, consistof acylinder placed horizontally in a;-furnace; and when used for making gasfromirosin this is partly filled up with bricks or other refractory andporous substances inbrokenifragments thrown in for the-purpose ofincreasing the heated surface over-v which the melted rosin and tar isto pass when introducedt-but as all this mass of materiallies in ahorizontal cylinder thereais but very little tendency to passthrough,-and therefore the upper surface of themass of bricks, & c.soonbecomes gummed over and the intersticesbetween them closed up sothat the melted rosin and tar passes over, the whole mass instead ofthroughthe interstices, receiving but little heat, and therefore thegreater part passes through and is delivered in the liquid form insteadof being gasified. It is a well known fact that much heat is absorbedand becomes latentin the process of changing rosin into tar, and thenagain in the production of gas from the tar, and as the rosln when mixedSpecification of Letters Patent No. 5,210, dated July 26, 1847'.

with the tar is a semi-fluid and the tar itself:

is a liquid it absorbs the heat withgreat rapidity directly from thesurface with which it is in contact,cand soon'reduces it below thegasifyingvpoint, that is below 700 degrees Fahrenheits scale, and whenthis takes place the heat applied is all consumed in turning the rosininto tar and reheating thetars I The objectof the first part of myinvent'ionis to avoid all these evils,'present a large extent of heatedsurface within a given co-mpass, and in such a situation that thegravity of the liquid will have its full effect to insure its passagethrough the retort, and at the same time prevent this heating surfacefrom being gummed up. These endsI at-v tain by makingthe retort with alarge ver- 131C211 branch-filled or ,nearlyso-with any: 7 L

kind of refractoryporous substance, such-as bricks, and feeding thematerial to begasial fied through the topof this vertical branch byplacing the feeding reservoirlof; crudematerial directly over it that itmaybe heated and kept at the required tempera-j ture by the heat of thefurnace surrounding the reort,and at thesame timewha've the pressure ofthe whole column oflliquid in the reservoir to aid in forcing the crudematerial through the retort. I j i The second part of my inventionrelates; to: the method of preventing the tar, &c., from bakingintheneck of the retort and thus clogging it, and consistsiin so -'co-m---.

bining the water vase with, the retort or cooler that it can beextended: around theneck of the retort up to the retort that .thewater'in the cooler (which cannot be heated above the boiling point asit is in an open vessel,) shall circulate around the .neck and preventit from being heated. abovethe boils ing point, instead of passing acurrent, ofwateraround it from a reservoir above,thusavoiding, thenecessity of usinga separate reservoir of water-requiring constantatten-.-:

tion and the labor of-raising the water from the lower to the. upperlevel.

The third part of my invention relates to A the method of regulating thesupply ofcrude material to the retort to regulate the supply of gas,,and consists in connecting the hood of the gasometer wit-hvthe COCkOI'J' valvev in the pipe that supplies the crude material from thereservoir to the retort by a lever and its appendages so that when thegas is generated faster than it is consumed the rising of the hood ofthe gasometer shall gradually close this cock or valve and diminish thesupply, and vice versaa And the fourth part of my invention relates tothe condenser, and consists in. passing the retort fits with its endsprojecting beyond the sides as shown in the figures. The heads (a, c) ofthis horizontal part (6) of the retort are ground in and the front oneis constructed and afiixed in the usual manner to be easily removed toclean out the retort; the vertical branch (1)) made of about the samesize as the horizontal part, is contracted at top with a conicalaperture through it like a valve seat to receive the lower end of a tube(d) which is made conical for that purpose and fits with a ground joint;the lower end of this tube is almost closed the opening into the retortbeing through a pipe (6) that extends from some distance below thebottom of the tube up nearly to its top, both ends of said pipe beingopen. The upper end of the tube (4) is firmly attached to the bottom ofan iron vase (f) which contains the rosin or other crude material fromwhich gas is to be made. Through the bottom of this vase a smalldivision (g) passes down nearly to the bottom of the above named tube(d); and in this division there is an openin into the vase provided witha stop cook (75 the spindle of which extends out through the side of thefoot of the vase so that as the melted rosin &c. is fed in it risesabove the lower edge of the artition and over the upper end of the pipeFe) and thence into the retort, so that the gas which rises from theretort through this pipe is prevented from escaping by the liquid crudematerial which closes the passage below the partition. The foot of thevase rests on a ring ('5') which holds it at the proper elevation andwithin the lower edge of the ring a disk or valve (71) is placed whichis pierced with holes like a heat register; this fits onto the top (7")of the stove, which is also similarly pierced with holes and on which itrevolves to act as a damper in shutting off the heat from the vase bywhich means the heat applied to the vase can be regulated. By openingthis register when the furnace is in operathence out through the neck(is) in the rear head of the retort. The fire surrounds the retort andits vertical branch, the outside plates of the furnace being lined withfire.

brick in the usual way of stoves forming a fire chamber. The neck (is)of the retort passes into the cooler (Z) which is a vessel open to theatmosphere in any mannerto prevent the water therein from being heatedabove the boiling oint. This vessel extends around the neck is) to therear head of the retort as at (m) so that the water in the cooler shallcirculate freely around it ,and

thus keep it down to or below the boiling point. The neck of the retortopens and discharges into a vertical pipe (n) thelower end of which isenlarged to form the tar box (0) to receive the tar which passes throughand which has not been gasified, and which can be drawn off through apipe andcock (p) to be returned into the vase andthence' through theretort, and the gas passes out through the upper end of the pipe intothe gasometer, and 1f the main pipe thatsupplies the burners be closed,the hood will be forced up, carrying with it a lever (1') attached to abevel cog wheel (8) the teeth of which engage with the cogs of-a similarwheel (t) on the spindle of the cookor valve (h) and closes it whichstops the supply of crudematerial and therefore the generation of gas;but when the main is open the gas passes down the main pipe into thecondenser 0) to which the main that leads to the burners is attached at-(w),

A water pipe (as) that ends in a seive (y) in the upper part of thecondenser supplies water in spray which passing through the gas at itascends to the main condenses it and washes out the impurities whichpass out with the condensing water through'the bent up tube (a) toprevent the escape of gas.

If desired the gasometer just described may be dispensed with, and thecooler represented in Fig. 3substituted where it will be seen that theneck (is) discharges into a vertical tube (a) the lower end of whichopens into and near the bottom of the tar box (0) so that the taraccumulates and rises above it to compel the gas to pass through the tarto reach the main pipe (03), the tar being prevented from rising abovethis pipe by a. siphon pipe and cock (6') from which it escapes when itreaches the level of the body of the pipe, the inner end being bent downto below the level of the tar to prevent the escape of gas.

It will be obvious from the foregoing that some parts of my apparatus,may be employed without the others and derive the advantages due to suchparts as may be used.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis- 1. The employment of the retort with the vertical branch containingthe material for presenting heated surface to the rosin and tar or othersubstance to be gasified as it descends from the reservoir, asdescribed, whereby the required surface is obtained to insure theproduction of gas with economy and by which also the substance orsubstances from which the gas is to be produced is compelled to passover and aroundthe heated surfaces, as described. 2. I claim placing thereservolr or vase of crude material above the vertical branch ployingthe heat of the furnace which sur- I rounds the retort to keep the rosin&c. in V V the reservoir in a liquid state as described.

3. I claim'combining the neck of there tort with the cooler by extendingthis vessel (the cooler) entirely around the neck of the retort and keepits temperature down 40 t to the boiling point or below and thus preventthe tar &c from baking in the neck of the retort as described.

4. I claim the method of regulating the supply of crude material to theretort by the consumption of gas by combining the hood of the gasometerwith the cock or valve of the supply pipe through which the crudematerial passes to the retort in the manner substantially as described,whereby the cock or valve is opened by the descent, andclosed by therising of the hood, as described.

5. And lastly, I claim the method of condensing and washing theimpurities from the gas by combining with the gas pipe a condenserprovided with a sieve for the spray of water and the bent up pipe forthe discharge of the condensing water 'andimpurities without permittingthe escape of the gas as described.

B. FRANKLIN oosToN.

Witnesses:

CHAS. M. KELLEY, JAs. MONTGOMERY.

